Hi and welcome 😊 There are so many acronyms in this blog title - I feel like I could be back at work! So my Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) is almost a flimsy (quilt top) and this week I found calm by doing some free motion quilting (FMQ) on my orange scrappy baby quilt. It was a busy and productive week, and I'm glad that you're visiting!
Almost a SAHRR flimsy
Here is the top border added to the SAHRR piece. It went relatively well until I added the last piece. I was shocked when I discovered that it was about 2½" short since I was so sure that it would fit. At least it was easy to add extra fabric. You can see in the photo below that I gave it an extra inch or so for good measures. Everything will get trimmed before adding the final side borders.
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| SAHRR quilt with pieced side and top borders |
I now have 3 blocks to add to the bottom and will do roughly what I did for the top border.
I had originally made this small block by sewing the smaller hour-glass blocks together. Unfortunately it didn't really look like hour-glass blocks.
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| Original small hour-glass blocks sewn together |
So I researched hour-glass quilts and found that they are usually made with a couple of colours and are set in different directions. Then I pulled apart my little block and made four more small hour-glass blocks with a purple background. I placed it within a block - so now I have the two larger blocks to set and then add the bottom border.
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| Three last blocks for the bottom |
Next steps: The parade starts next week, so I'll have the flimsy done by then.
- Sew the last three blocks into a bottom border and
- Add the 4" final border.
- Add the outer side borders. I don't trust my estimated measurements, so I'll see if it's the size I want once the side outer borders are on. 😕
FMQ a Scrappy Baby Quilt
I really needed a break from the SAHRR, so I got back to the scrappy baby quilt. I finished stitching it in-the-ditch, and then started FMQ. I remembered that I wanted a dot-to-dot quilting (à la Angela Walters) but somehow forgot about the dot-to-dot part and just started with Angela's Shape by Shape designs.
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| FMQ the scrappy quilt |
The FMQ is really difficult to see because I used 100 wt. white Bottom Line thread. It worked well and I could see most of the quilting as I was doing it.
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| FMQ using mostly straight lines which I drew before quilting |
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| FMQ details |
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| Backing where you can see the stitch-in-the-ditch and some FMQ |
When I realised that I wasn't actually doing dot-to-dot quilting, I took out my FMQ journal - I have attached all of Angela Walter's diagrams in it. I really want the FMQ to be light. This will be perfect.
Project Quilting 17.6 - a Happy Handful
I remembered to check on Project Quilting (PQ) and since it was a quick make, I got out some scraps and made this. The theme is to make something small enough to hold in one hand.
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| A handful of cuteness for Project Quilting 😍 |
The first block I made was the centre wonky snowball in the middle. I added pink squares around it, pieced some batting and used a cute Winnie-the-Poo fabric underneath. I put my top fabric wrong side up for the pillow case finish (it's supposed to be right side up!) but since I didn't have any specific size in mind for the piece, I just cut around the stitching, turned it right side up and re-sewed the pillow case finish.
I used my walking foot to quilt it with straight lines. A quick and fun finish!
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| A quick finish that I can hold in one hand! |
What I learned
- I was tired of working on putting the SAHRR quilt together. It felt like work, not fun, so I knew that I had to do something else.
- I'm confident that I'll be able to finish the flimsy by the parade (which I'm sure will run for longer than a day!)
- It was calming to do some FMQ on the baby quilt. I'm trying to keep the FMQ light. I'm also doing a lot of marking of straight lines - it's worth the effort if it means keeping my lines straight!
- Making the PQ mini was nice, especially using those light spring fabrics instead of the dark ones in my SAHRR.
- Not having a plan meant that I could wing it, including just making the mat smaller instead of un-stitching it to redo the pillow case finish.
- You may have noticed the snow underneath my Handful of Cuteness project. Yes, it's back....Happy Spring Equinox!
- The mat is very cute and I'm using it already in the living room under my stitching supplies. Thanks to Kim and Trish for another fun season of Project Quilting!
Related links
- SAHRR 2026 posts
- Growing SAHRR 2026 Quilt and I Quilted This!, March 12, 2026
- Planning my SAHRR Quilt and I Quilted This!, March 05, 2026
- Project Quilting 17.4 and SAHRR, Round 5, February 22, 2026
- SAHRR Round 4 and I Quilted This! February 11, 2026
- Project Quilting & SAHRR Round 3, February 07, 2026
- A Quilter's Cove QAL Link-up and SAHRR, January 31, 2026
- SAHRR Round 1 - hour-glass block, January 26, 2026
- Starting Things and I Quilted This!, January 15, 2026
- Orange Scrappy Baby Quilt
- Quilting a Scrappy Quilt and I Quilted This! February 26, 2026
- Orange Scraps and a Baby Quilt, July 02, 2025
Linking parties
I'll be linking to some fun linking parties. You may want to check some out after you've linked up below! Project Quilting 17.6, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026,
I Quilted This!
Welcome to the I Quilted This! linking party that celebrates quilting on a domestic machine or custom quilting on a long-arm. Feel free to link up and share any recent project, even if you're not quilting it!
Here are the posts from last week that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and feel free to grab the button.
Kat from Scrapbox Quilts is also an Angela Walter's fan. She FMQ her large open spaces panel with all kinds of wonderful FMQ designs. You'll want to head over there and look at all of her detailed photos by clicking on them to enlarge them. Wow!
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| Kat's FMQ Open Spaces Challenge quilt |
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| Details of Open Spaces FMQ by Kat |
Sally of Crafts, Caves and Cooking made this insulated pizza box for last week's Project Quilting Challenge - My Compliments. Those colours really are complementary and what a practical project!
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| Sally's very practical pizza box |
Gail from Quilting Gail made a lovely red and white baby quilt to donate for March's Red Rainbow Scraps Challenge. It's so cute! It was quilted using straight lines.
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| Gail's red and white baby quilt |
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| Straight line quilting by Gail |
Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts made a lovely baby quilt for a co-worker. The fabrics in the quilt are so cute!
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| Preeti's lovely baby quilt |
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| Cute fabric in Preeti's baby quilt |
Melva of Melva Loves Scraps made a great t-shirt quilt for a client who's son is turning 21.
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| 21st birthday t-shirt quilt made by Melva |
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| T-shirt quilt quilted by Melva with diagonal lines |
It's now your turn 😍
Thanks for hosting a linky party every week, we quilters do a good job with our quilts and they need to be seen! The baby quilt was a good option to work on as a break from the SAHRR quilt. Happy stitching!
ReplyDeleteThank you Gretchen. I love to see everyone's quilts and am so happy to encourage quilting bloggers. It was a good break from the SAHRR and now it's finished. Yay!
DeleteYour SAHRR is really coming together. Those pinks and purples are so pretty together. Happy stitching this week.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Kate. It finally happened - the flimsy is finished! Looking forward to sharing....and playing with other fabrics :-)
DeleteWhen something fun becomes work, it deserves a time out! Thanks for sharing in Sew & Tell.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely correct Melva. I haven't had to give a quilt a time out in a while because I'm usually just flitting around :-)
DeleteWhen you have to think at constructing a quilt, especially improv, it can take a lot of energy, so it's good you shifted to do something relaxing and fun. I do like how your SAHRR quilt top looks, and yay for the quick fix!
ReplyDeleteThanks Wendy - it is a lot of work but so worth it! It was good to take a break and now the flimsy is done! Yay!!!
DeleteI agree with Melva, if fun becomes like work, it's time for a break. Glad you were able to do that. I think your SAHRR is looking lovely. Thanks for sharing with us at Monday Musings. Have a great week.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Brenda - the break was good. The flimsy is done and looking forward to the parade :-) Hope your week is good!
DeleteYour SAHRR is looking pretty wild!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Sally :-)
DeleteGreat solution for the smidge too short border.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gwyned, that 's the best part of making things up as you go along :-)
DeleteI love your scrappy baby quilt and I'm looking forward to seeing your sahrr in the Parade :)
ReplyDeletethe SAHRR is so pretty - I like all they different blocks in it. Great little baby quilt!
ReplyDeleteJ'aime beaucoup ton SAHRR, bravo pour l'assemblage créatif des blocs mais je comprends que la réflexion use et soit fatigante. C'est bien d'avoir d'autres projets en cours pour faire diversion. Ton FMQ est très réussi, ce bébé quilt est adorable ! Bravo aussi pour le petit projet, la neige était juste là pour embellir encore plus la photo ;)
ReplyDelete